I haven't really been able to find anything definitive on this subject, so I'm starting a thread: How can psychological elements of the DF simulation be worked into combat to deepen and enrich the fights and diversify their outcomes? I'm putting it here, instead of in suggestions, because it needs some refining before I'm comfortable writing up a proper pitch for it.
In DF Talk #8 Toady talked a little bit about how a more sophisticated psych profile for each dwarf will eventually influence their day-to-day activities, like which labors they perform or their day-to-day morale and mood, and I'd like to see that worked into fights. Right now, the fighting's pretty flat. Civilian dwarves panic and flee if they catch a glimpse of a groundhog or kobold thief, military dwarves will sprint, all alone and naked, directly into single combat with a bronze collossus. Invading goblin squads will pillage until they suffer a certain number of deaths and then break and run en masse. It seems like combat trances and rage are random occurrences.
I'd like to see weights on fight-or-flight and target priorities in battle. For fight-or-flight, it could be worked like a confidence game, similar to betting algorithms in poker. A woodcutter with good physical fitness and a bronze axe should have a little swagger and a good sense of his own toughness, so when he's on his way to fell a tree and he bumps into a fox, he won't be interrupted by it, and indeed the fox itself will avoid him. If it goes after him, he'll take a moment from his day to kill the fox before going back to work. If he runs into a grizzly bear or a giant scorpion or a squad of goblins, then he'll beat feet. So if he has a sense of his own combat capabilities, and can assign values to the possible threats around him, he'll make an on-the-fly determination about whether to go into "kill it with my hands" or "flee in flailing terror" mode. This could be deepened further by allowing both positive and negative modifiers to the value. For example:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Adult Woodcutter Dwarf (+10) | Faced by Human (-10) |
| Armed with Axe (+3*Axedwarfship Skill) | Human is a swordsman with a sword (-15) |
| Wearing Leather Armor (+2) | Human is wearing Iron Armor (-10) |
| Wearing Iron Cap (2) | Human is enraged (-5) |
| Wearing Leather High Boots (+1) | Faced by Goblin (-10) |
| Accompanied by War Dog (+War Dog's Value, say 5) | Goblin is wearing iron armor (-10) |
| Human has a moderate arm wound and is bleeding (+4) | Goblin is an elite bowgoblin with a bow (-20) |
| Dwarf has six confirmed kills in combat so far (+6) | Goblin is wearing a complete military uniform (-2) |
| Dwarf hates goblins (+2) | Dwarf has a mild leg injury and is in slight pain (-2) |
Of course, I pulled these numbers right out of my butt.
So this looks like a really tough fight for him, one non-military dwarf with his dog (total value: 32 + axe skill modifier) against two armed and armored bad guys (total value: 84). If his axe skill is below legendary, he won't even try it, but if he's at level 18 or above with that axe, he'll be confident enough to engage. If he chooses to flee, his decision will be re-evaluated every so often, so he might get halfway back to the entrance and meet a combat squad on their way to intercept the goblins, and that will tip the scales massively in his favor, so he'll do an about-face and join in on the rumble. If, during a pitched battle, he sustains a serious (though not necessarily life-threatening) wound, he'll disengage and head for the infirmary. That way, fights will be more likely to yield treatable wounds and less likely to end with everyone getting killed. Furthermore, if the ranking officer on the scene deems the fight unwinnable, the entire squad will be put into retreat.
One last wrinkle is that there will be a discrepancy between perceived merit and actual merit, due to skills. A swordsman, in my example, is a generic -15 modifier to his enemies, whereas the dwarf's unique knowledge of his own skill allows for higher granularity in his self-assessment. So he might be a level 8 axedwarf, getting a +24 boost to his self-assessment, while the human could be anywhere from a level 2 swordsman to a level 9 swordsman, and he'll always factor in as a -15 to the dwarf, while giving between +6 and +27 to his own sense of worth. This allows a sort of bluffing, where a well-equipped squad might instill fear in the enemy just by virtue of being moderately skilled and dressed in a kickass uniform.
The other half of this idea is that combatants will disregard a unit that is no longer a threat, either due to wounds or a transition into open flight. If there's no immediate threat, they will chase and kill fleeing enemies or take some time to finish off wounded adversaries, but they won't sit there choking an unconscious goblin while three other, healthy enemies pepper them with arrows.
Once again, this will mean more business for the doctors and less for the coffin-makers at the end of each battle.
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Topic: Combat Psychology (Read 6931 times)